Capsized
by FictionSpoon
Summary: She had failed all of her OWLs and all but one of her friends had left her behind. The year was 1975 and Juniper Darling would have to do it all over again. With angst in her head, and fire in her heart, she knew she had to do it right this time. But can she pull it off in a year with the Marauders?
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

Red moonlight poured over the manor settled upon a hill which was surrounded by a thin, yet deep, moat. Within the large and noble building was an assembly hall of sorts. And besides the dim, orange candlelight that was unevenly arranged along the aisle amidst crowded pews, the light of the moon that seeped through the tall, arched, black-framed windows was the only source of light to see the tense, dead looks all around.

Atop the nave, a father and daughter stood holding each other by the wrist. Between them stood a gold font, emblazoned with their family crest amongst other patterns of flora and creatures, some mythical and others entirely muggle. It was called the sacred chalice, which contained the secret behind their eyes.

"I will," began the father, baring fangs within a grin as he looked down at his kin, into her eyes, aglow and crimson, much like the moon above them. "Your title as heiress stands still, and immortal glory will be presented to you at the completion of your task."

A wife and mother stood behind the sacred chalice, her wand moved in a motion of infinity, binding the vow. Her closed smile, behind lips painted black, dropped as her gazed turned away from her husband, and snapped to her daughter, whose nerves seemed to only reveal themselves to those closest to her.

"And will you, my dear, accept only death as the singular result of your failings to complete this task? Do you agree to the terms laid at your feet?" spoke the clan's current sovereign consort.

A loosely curled lock of black hair was moved out of the daughter's eyes and tucked behind her ever-so-slightly pointed ear, by her sometimes intimidating mother. In all of the young woman's years, she had never quite been prepared for the pressure she felt right now weighing heavily down on her entire being. In her honest opinion, her future leadership, if it was even achieved at all, would change a lot in this small society. This rite of passage ritual was ages old and she honestly found it entirely unnerving. Nothing about it was humanely right.

The only issue was, she seemed to be the only one with this belief. However, as it was an unspoken rule to never speak your opinion on the ancient methods, she still hoped that there were plenty more who would do anything to bring a little more gentle approach to such an important time in any young person's life.

Tearing her eyes away from her hand, she scanned the crowd, the assembly of witnesses to the momentous occasion, sifting through each row of beady, red eyes of all different shades, searching for any sign at all for mercy.

Nothing. She was forced to internalize her horror upon finding none. In the place of the mercy she greatly fantasized about, was only determination and trust. Far too much trust. It brought a powerful wave of nausea–a nervous gut wringing–to her stomach, and forced her to return her gaze to he who clutched her wrist.

With any sign of fear chased away with a single, audible swallow, before her trembling, purple-painted lips opened, allowing her agreement to slip past them. "I will. I understand the terms: should I fail, I will be cast away with the wind." Having definitely ensured that her words were clear to anyone in the assembly hall, the daughter held her breath, watching as the unbreakable vow was finalised as the white binding faded away, one piece at a time.

Her mother took up a goblet of the family recipe of wine made by the house elves in the manors basement brewery. It was made from the juices of Argentinian white grapes, Spanish peach juice, Polish raspberry juice and rose petals from the roses in the front courtyard of the manor. She raised it in her right hand, while raising her wand in her left, before proudly announcing:

"And so, the vow has been completed. Our dear heiress has a destiny to fulfill."

As all within the pews all rose and cheered, the husband disconnected his hand from his daughters wrist to raise his own wand, wordlessly casting lumos maxima. Before either his wife or their community could follow this movement, the heiress released a heavy breath under the noise of all of those to trusted this decision.

She rose her own wand, casting a weak fireworks charm over the pews and fought with herself, but smiled anyway.

That night, after all of the festivities were over, she shut herself in her room and collapsed onto the stool of her ebony vanity, cushioned with a royal purple velvet. She distracted herself with the curiosity of why she didn't like to use glamour charms on special occasions, just like her mother, she preferred to use muggle makeup. Whether it was something to keep her mind clear of concern or because she found it fun occasionally, she would never know.

But what she did know is that it surely would not take her three years to get it done. And she would change everything as soon as she could.


	2. Chapter 1

**Note: Hey y'all. I hope you enjoy this first look into our main gal's head. I would like to mention that the chapter lengths might vary quite a lot, so bare with me. Some feedback is always apprieciated.**

 **\- FictionSpoon**

 **Chapter 1**

Ah, Kings Cross Station, the home of platform 9 ¾. But this wasn't like any other September 1st, Kingsley Shacklebolt had reminded his mate. No, this year, 1975, he would be going into 6th year, but his friend would be remaining in 5th.

Her name was Juniper Darling, and she had failed every single one of her OWL examinations. She was embarrassed–humiliated, even– and had been staying at the Shacklebolt household since the summer had began. And if it wasn't for the fact that Juniper was loved by all in that family, she'd have been unable to dodge the following arguments her parents would have started with her.

Gloria, Kingsley's mum, had warned her that she was only making the situation worse by not returning home in the first place. Juniper started her summer confident about what she was doing, but overtime she was reduced to feeling as if she was going to spew all over her case right about now.

"I wan'to remind ya, sweetheart," Gloria said to Wanda, her youngest child, who was about the enter her second year at Hogwarts. "That, whatever happens this year, Kingsley and Junie have your back, okay?"

"Yes, Ma." Wanda sighed, exasperatedly. "You told me that last year."

"And I'm tellin' ya this year, too." She smiled, putting her hands on her two younger children's shoulders, before her eldest piped up.

"I'm just sayin', Ma," Bonnie said, leaning on Juniper's shoulders. "We are here to see Wanda, Kingsley and Junie off. You are not here to get into a fight with Mr and Mrs Darling. As you said yourself, this morning, this is Junie's fight, not ours."

"I know–I know, but it's hard. She's one of us, as much as she's one of theirs." Gloria argued, which brought Juniper to grin. Though it was made clear in everything the Shacklebolts did for her, it was still nice to hear that she was an honorary member of their family.

"And you, Darling, you did this to yourself. So don't even think about letting your anger reach a wand-pointing level. I can arrest you for under-aged magic now."

"Alright–alright, I get it. You're an auror now. You have power." Juniper snorted, before raising her eyebrow and smirking up at Kingsley's older sister. "But what if I do it after I'm on the train? Eh? Eh?"

"If a spell leaves the carriage, I'm apparating onto that train and arresting you on the spot."

"Don't challenge Bonnie's power." Kingsley warned. "You saw how long it took Ma to reverse the effects of that tripping jinx she cast on Wanda last Christmas."

"I'm still not over that one bit. You owe me Bonnibel," muttered Wanda, glaring at her brother for bringing it up again.

"Now–now, that's enough fighting like cat an' dog you two." Gloria interrupted as we stopped at the entrance to our destination. "Alright now, I'm right behind ya, Wanda. Let's go." She said before running through in tandem with Wanda.

Kingsley and Juniper shared a glance, but he took a step back, gesturing to the concealed entrance. She burned a glare into the side of his face, simply earning a grin, before taking a few steps back, running forward enough to gain enough momentum to actually cross into the platform and then set her feet on the base of the luggage trolley, screeching "Wahoo" as she did so.

Kingsley and Bonnie eventually joined the other three on the wizarding platform, and before he even registered anything going on around him, Juniper ducked behind him.

"I'm not here. I'm not here." She mumbled.

"Go get 'em tiger." He grinned, pulling her up by her upper arm and stepped to the side having now seen her parents.

"Good luck." Wanda whispered before giving Juniper a double thumbs up, and sharing the concencered look the rest of her family wore.

She took three or four steps forward, before stopping, hunching her shoulders and scrunching her eyes shut at a shrill yell of her name.

"JUNIPER JUNO DARLING! GET OVER HERE IMMEDIATELY!"

Camellia Darling was usually a calm, patient woman. But her introduction happened to be at a very bad time. A time where although she loved her daughter, her middle child, for everything she was worth, she also wanted to tear her hair out for being so thick. Not academically, no. Thick in the terms of common sense. She couldn't help her anger. Of course not, her father was German and her mother was Puerto Rican. And when this anger truly shined, as it did now, her thick confused accent really strongly reared itself from its long slumber.

Anthos Darling. How could we forget? Though he had more self-control and patience compared to his wife, who had the self-control and patience of three pencils, he could still yell. Oh, he could yell. Juniper suffered from what he referred to as 'middle-child-itis', which just meant she was the hardest of their three children to deal with. He still loved her, sure, just not the majority of her choices.

After a yelling match that had started within the next five seconds, making the Shacklebolt family both uncomfortable and angry at the same time, Camellia decided that shouting the loudest would actually get the pair to listen to her. Surprisingly, due to how scary she was when she was angry and not on your side, it did actually work.

"Oh my good god, enough! Now, listen to me! The pair of you!"

"Mama!"

"No! Enough." She raised her hands in front of her face so she didn't metaphorically or literally take her daughters face off. "I'm sick of all of this fighting!"

"Camie!" Anthos attempted.

"No-no-no-no-no! Shut it, Anthos! Listen to me, NOW!" The mother roared, her temper hotter than any furnace. "Stop pushing me away when we talk! You're beginning to sound like your father, and you know what a right son of a fucking bitch he was! I didn't marry Apollo! How dare you leave after you blow up! How dare you not consider me—like it all comes down to you!"

"Why don't we talk about it now, then?!" argued her husband, who sometimes had a habit of listening with his ears, but not with actual understanding of the things he was telling her.

"No, I'm talking now! We talk later." She said, before she snapped her attention to Juniper who was frozen with fear. Uh oh. That wasn't a good look. "As for you! You stayed out all summer!"

"Mama, I can explai–"

"Zip it, Juniper," growled her mother, frightening a small child nearby. "You scared us half to death! If it wasn't for Kingsley writing to us telling us where you were, I'd have thought you dead all summer!" Camellia shrieked like a banshee.

"I'm sorry, Mama." Juniper mumbled, her cheeks aglow with embarrassment.

"Save the apologies for your father!" When her daughter looked confused, she continued. "He has barely slept since the day you were supposed to come home! He's been worried fucking sick! All he's wanted for you your whole life is the best! Yet, for months, you have lied to us! What'd we fucking do to make you think we wouldn't do anything and everything for you!" She pulled her husband by the collar and her daughter by her arm, so she knew they were listening. "We solve problems as a family! You come home, not go off and make matters worse on your own! One day you'll come back home to find that I'm not waiting for you to get your shit together anymore!"

To this, Anthos muttered an apology while Juniper trembled and stared blankly at the floor. Why did she expect it to be any easier than just going home? Gloria was right. She would have to apologise in a letter, because she felt too much like shit to do so now.

Camellia took a few deep breaths and walked over to the Shacklebolt family, holding her hand out. She shook each of their hands, before smiling. "I'm very sorry you all had to see that. You know I'm not usually like that."

"It's alright, Mrs Darling. You have a right to be fumin'." Kingsley smiled. "I tried to get her to go home. Ma did too."

"Thank you for looking after her, Gloria. You should have really sent her straight home to avoid all of the faff." The mixed race woman said, sounding kind of embarrassed.

"I don't know what your style is, but my style is making them learn from their mistakes." Mrs Shacklebolt began, with slow hand gestures that gave her this formidable, Herculean sturdiness and superiority that a lot of women just couldn't quite pull off the same way she did. Yet somehow, it was comforting–almost inviting, if you will–to Juniper's mum. "However, you're daughter has been an absolute delight all summer. "'Was doin' everything that was and wasn't asked of her. She's good, ya know."

"I know–I know, she just... I admit. She's learnt how to be dim from her dear mother." Camellia jokingly mocked herself rubbing at her right cheek, embarrassed even more about how she had caused such a scene when her daughter had virtually made up for it. She had stood for a short while only to find that the two Shacklebolt siblings, who were due to get on the train, had already done so but not before each giving their mother a hug. They had even had time to properly recover and breathe, due to the fact that Gloria had always given them bone-crushing cuddles, to make them know they were loved.

Mrs Darling whirled around and had found that Juniper had already escaped onto the train, but her oldest and youngest were bidding her husband adieu. She ran up behind her son and hugged him from behind tightly.

"I love you, honey. My precious head boy. Make me proud." She smiled.

"'Love you, Ma." He responded, patting her on the back of her head.

She smiled and let go, spinning around and hugging her daughter. "I love you, sweetheart. Enjoy Hogsmeade. You'll be alright. Write to me straight away if there's a problem. I'll get back to you in the same day of I can."

"Thanks, Mam. You're my best friend. You know that?" River responded into the crook of her mother's neck.

"You're a good girl. Now, go. Enjoy school. I'll see you at Christmas, alright?" She smiled, receiving a nod in return. She watched as her son led River onto the train, carrying all of her stuff as well as his own.

Every year, Camellia found herself slightly tearful and leaning into her husband's side, restlessly searching for her children to give them a big smile and a largely spanning wave. However this year, she was evermore tearful wondering how long it would be before Juniper gave up and responded to her weekly letters. Camellia didn't like to leave things on a bad note, but sighed after the train had entirely vanished from sight. She had taught all of her children to give as good as they get, so what had she done to deserve such stubborn behaviour?


End file.
